Regulatory reform: GDC welcomes direction of travel but highlights room for improvement
NewsPosted by: Dental Design 16th June 2021
The General Dental Council (GDC) has welcomed the Government’s proposals for reform of healthcare professional regulation, but is calling for greater flexibility and a faster pace of reform.
The regulator has repeatedly expressed frustration about legislation which is too detailed and inflexible to meet modern needs, and which undermines its ability to operate an effective and efficient regulatory system. The GDC supports the more responsive approach to regulation these proposals will bring about and recognises the need to ensure effective accountability.
But the GDC is urging the Government to be more ambitious in its approach. In some areas the proposals are still very detailed – such as the defined process for all regulators to follow in fitness to practise investigations – and this risks locking regulators into a system which may work today but doesn’t have the adaptability it needs to respond to the needs of tomorrow.
The regulator has also highlighted concerns over the timetable and pace of reform.
GDC Chair, Bill Moyes, said: “My biggest concern is the further delay to the reforms as a result of the government’s decision to review the number of healthcare professional regulators. We need more progress in reform, faster, and a clear timetable for delivery.”
In forming its response to the consultation, the GDC met with over 100 stakeholders from across the sector, providing it with valuable and varied insights on the broad range of issues raised by the consultation. The GDC looks forward to seeing the timetable for reform and the consultation for draft dentistry legislation.
Further information about the GDC’s work on regulatory reform, including detail on where the GDC agrees and disagrees with current proposals, is available online.
